The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Clifford guilty of assaults
PR GURU Max Clifford has been found guilty of a string of indecent assaults on teenage girls in the first conviction under sex crime inquiry Operation Yewtree.
The 71-year-old celebrity publicist was convicted of eight indecent assaults and cleared of two at Southwark Crown Court yesterday, with the jury unable to reach a verdict on one other count.
Clifford had repeatedly denied the claims, calling his prosecution “a nightmare” and branding his accusers “fantasists”.
The packed courtroom hushed as the forewoman of the jury gave the verdicts on the eighth day of deliberations.
Clifford sat still in the dock as his fate was revealed, breathing deeply as he listened through a hearing loop.
His daughter, Louise, showed no emotion as the damning verdicts were given. The media expert then left the courtroom with friends and supporters in complete silence.
He was released on bail until his sentencing on Friday, but Judge Anthony Leonard QC warned him that he may face jail.
He said: “You must realise that the fact I have given you bail is no indication of what the final sentence will be.”
The court heard from a string of women who testified about Clifford’s naked romps in his New Bond Street office.
Prosecutors portrayed him as a well practised manipulator, who promised to boost his victims’ careers and introduce them to celebrities in exchange for sexual favours.
He offered them casting appointments, pretending to be Hollywood VIPs including Steven Spielberg and Albert “Cubby” Broccoli on the telephone, and bizarrely bragged about his diminutive manhood.
Victims included a woman who said Clifford abused her several times after he met her family on holiday in Torremolinos in Spain in 1977 when she was 15.
Another victim, who was an extra in the film Octopussy, claimed she was targeted at Clifford’s office in 1981 or 1982, aged 19.
Clifford told her that Charles Bronson wanted underwear pictures of her to decide if she could be in a film, and after she spoke on the phone to a man claiming to be Bronson, Clifford pinned her down on a sofa.
Speaking outside court, Detective Chief Inspector Michael Orchard from Operation Yewtree said: “I would like to thank the victims for their courage and strength in coming forward to speak to us. I hope they feel and know that they were listened to.
“While this was a high-profile trial, officers work tirelessly to being offenders of sexual abuse to justice on a daily basis.”
Jenny Hopkins, Deputy Chief Crown Prosecutor for CPS London, said: “It is only right that we now take some time to consider our position on the hung count and we will update the court accordingly.”
The jury could not reach a verdict on a count involving a woman who claimed Clifford groped her in his car after meeting her in Morden, south London in 1966.
He was cleared of another two allegations — one woman who said she was pushed up against a wall in his offices when he groped her and kissed her in 1975, and another who claimed she was groped in a taxi in 1978.
As he left, Clifford told journalists: “I have been told by my lawyers not to say anything at all.”